An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

For Milwaukee artist and "Project Runway" contestant Miranda Levy there is one garment that means more than any other: her military uniform.

"I am a female veteran and that means something to me," says Levy, who served in the U.S. Army for eight years as a mechanic. "It is the most expensive uniform I own, because I paid for it with my life."

She was excited about wearing her uniform on the show and put it on before her first appearance on the runway, only to have producers demand that she remove her Class-A jacket, name plate and the U.S. Army insignia.

"I think initially I said 'Over my dead body,'" Levy says, adding that this represented a breach of military standards. Veterans and military service members watching the show would see it as dishonoring the uniform.

Levy voiced her concerns but the producers persisted. It was about five minutes before taping on the second day of shooting. With no time to change, Levy nervously tried to disguise the uniform altogether by taking down her hair and putting on a belt and bracelets.

Weeks before, Levy had provided producers with documentation from the U.S. Army that cleared her to wear the uniform. It had also been approved when she arrived, when staff with the show had voiced support about her wearing it. She also had been filmed in uniform for a “home visit” video created for the show’s web site.

"There is a part of me that suddenly thought that they were doing this to mess with me, to get to me," she says now. "Part of the show is to stir up emotions."

After the season premiere aired on Lifetime TV, Levy started getting messages from veterans and service members dismayed by the way she wore her uniform. Comments were made on fan sites, too. People who attended the viewing party at the Intercontinental Hotel in Milwaukee also noticed the gaffe and mentioned it to her that night, she says.

So Levy made a decision to speak out against the show, though she had signed a contract vowing not to speak about the behind-the-scenes production. She posted an open letter to Facebook explaining what had happened.

Sara Rea, executive producer for the show, fell on her sword over the issue, saying that the fault was entirely hers.

"I don't want any of the backlash to come on Miranda's shoulders," said Rea, who had also called Levy to apologize. "If she's getting a hard time, that is unfair and unjust."

Rea explained that there had been a miscommunication about whether the show indeed did have cclearance to use the uniform and that a bad call was made when time was tight. In retrospect, she said, she realizes that dismantling the uniform was a bigger mistake than leaving it as is.

"We loved that she wanted to wear it," Rea says. "We are hugely regretful that it worked out the wrong way."

Levy was very concerned about her breach of uniform standards and repeatedly asked to talk to producers about it during the weeks of filming in New York, where everything except the season finale has been shot.

"I didn't get approval to wear it for the rest of the season," Levy says. "I felt like that was stripped away, and I felt degraded."

Asked about what her uniform means to her, Levy says, that the Army saved her in many ways. She enlisted at 17.

"I grew up in an abusive home in a super small town, and I thought it was a way to escape, to pay for college and to travel," she says.

She also found it hard to be a woman in the military, though, and has recently taken part in an art project called The Veterans Book Project, to share her experiences with sexual assault in the military. She never knew the men who served with her could turn out to be her "biggest enemies," she says now.

"The Army saved me in a way I didn't expect but then it was hard, too." she says.

Making clothing inspired by her uniform has been a way for Levy to reclaim her identity, she says. It has been a form of healing. So much so that she is starting a project to help other victims of sexual trauma in the military through making clothes.

Because her father was in the military, Levy grew up seeing women in military uniform, she says.

"I always felt that they were really strong and beautiful," she says now of those women. "In the back of my mind, that is something I always wanted to be.

"In my designs, that's one thing that I always want is for women to feel strong and beautiful."

About Mary Louise Schumacher

Mary Louise Schumacher is the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic. She writes about culture, design, the urban landscape and Milwaukee's creative community. Art City is her award-winning cultural page and a community of more than 20 contributing writers and artists. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

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